All In The Family

Yesterday I got to watch my very talented sister Mimi perform with her Chinese orchestra for Lunar New Year.

 

There were pieces with the whole orchestra plus she did an instrumental duet!  My grandparents were there, as well as a very good friend with her munchkins, so it was a lot of fun to see everyone and cheer for Mimi!

Today it was a different kind of family outing – my first race of 2010!!!  2.5 months ago, when I finished IM AZ, this moment felt like a million years away; 2 weeks ago, it felt too soon!  Today it felt just right.  I know my running legs aren’t exactly where I want them for the year yet but they were still in darn good form!

My mom and my sister Cai were going to run the 3K event, while I was running the 10K along with Jenn, her husband David, my aunt and her husband.  My family arrived a little earlier than expected this morning, and so we got an early start driving over to Santa Cruz.

It’s still dark out!  But we were the first ones to check in.  And the first to christen the portajohns.  Mom and Cai were still heavily bundled up here.

After staying warm in the car for a while, we spotted Jenn and David and my aunt with my uncle and her friends.  Lots of nervous chatter and then we headed down to the start line to watch the 1K kids run go off.  SO. CUTE! 

Shortly thereafter they were ready to start the 3K run.  My mom only started running in the last couple months (she has a cute little story about figuring out at IM AZ that she was capable of running).  When I talked her into this race, she worked hard to build up to the 3K distance and then started working on getting faster doing it.  She set an ambitious goal for herself for this race.  Once they started the race, I began my warmup run, while also taking pictures of my mom and sister heading out.  I got back just in time to cheer my mom as she sprinted in!  1 MINUTE FASTER THAN HER GOAL!  Yay, Mom!

And then it was time for the 10K.  When I laid out my goals for the year, this was more of a B race, a chance to see how my legs were doing after AZ.  I thought it would be nice if I could match my PR but in December and early January as I got back to running, I questioned even that.  My last few long runs leading up to this ones though had been good ones so who knows?  All I knew for sure that it would hurt. 

We’re off!  You can *almost* see me in a teal tank and green visor right behind the guy starting his watch.

My aunt’s awesome shirt says “I’m only doing this so I can post a picture on Facebook.” 

As per my instructions, I held back the first couple miles and then picked up the pace every mile thereafter.  I got passed by what felt like everyone in that first mile.  But I steadily passed and was never repassed after that.  Holding back at the race start is not easy but I knew I’d need it to not blow up later. 

The course for this race is lovely – starting in the shade of Natural Bridges State Park and heading immediately out to the shoreline to run along the Pacific Ocean to and from the turnaround.  Surprisingly it was sunny and WARM today and I was feeling that heat by mile 3.  By the last 1.5 miles, I was just trying not to focus on how much I felt like barfing (I’ve already been there, done that when racing so I knew it was a possibility).  As I rounded the last turn and headed downhill to the finish, it looked…so…far…away. 

Almost there

And then finally I was done.  Too bad I couldn’t be bothered to smile nice at the finish like my mom did!

I managed a PR by 2 minutes and 15 seconds!  And upon further review of the data, I negative-splitted each mile perfectly. 

From there it was time to jog my cool-down mile while cheering in friends and family.  Everyone did fantastic! I was so proud of Jenn especially for her first running race! 

With Jenn

With my sister, mom and aunt

Eventually we all wandered up to the “expo” area, looking for water, snacks and more warm layers (fog was rolling in again), while they announced awards.

My mom and sister were both 4th in their age groups!  And then to my surprise…I won my age group!

Suffice it to say, 2010 is off to a good start!

Training totals for February 1-7:
Swim: 6700 yards (and let me add, 50 of those yards were real honest-to-goodness BUTTERFLY stroke)
Bike: 15.8 miles
Run: 16.3 miles
Strength: 0.5 hour
Total time: 7.25 hours